Point of View

Even though an omniscient narrator tells the story, it is told completely from Catherine's point of view. Because the novel deals with Catherine's depression and grief, the reader is privy to all of her thoughts. Her thoughts flow rhythmically from past to present with small bursts of insight in between. Catherine views the world as being full of music. She finds sounds and rhythms in everyday things and creates music from combining these things with the lessons of her childhood.

Catherine infuses every plot point with her history. Her arrival in Ireland is filtered through her remembrances of childhood and her own child. While she is in labor, she remembers the different things her various music teachers taught her over the years. The birth of Anna brings back memories of her parents and her current relationship with them. As she waits for the movers to arrive...